Box Office Report: Scorsese Cleans House

Thanks to one of the best casts we've seen in quite some time, Martin Scorsese had the greatest opening weekend of his career with The Departed racking up a dominating $27 million. The director's previous best was $10.3 million, set back in 1991 with the film Cape Fear. While it's a bit frightening to think that a director of this caliber has never had a pic debut with more than $10 million, do keep in mind Scorsese's films usually open on a smaller number of screens before rolling out on a larger scale. However, with an all-star team of talent, Warner Bros. decided to swing big, throwing The Departed into 3,017 theaters. And boy did it pay off.

Though it made a good attempt to keep pace, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginningfailed to hack its way to the top, settling for a respectable $19.15 million and the weekend's second spot. With only a $16 million production budget, I'd imagine Texas Chainsaw: The Middle and Texas Chainsaw: The End will show up sooner rather than later. The Dane Cook and Jessica Simpson comedy Employee of the Month ($11.8 million) was in third place after Friday, but bad buzz and a whole lot of youngsters demoted it down one notch to fourth, while the animated Open Season (last week's number one) scored spot number three with $16 million. And knocking Jackass: Number Two ($6.4 million) out of the top five for the first time since its release,The Guardian rounded things out with $9.6 million.